Reflection Paper

Democratic ideal is to allow legalized citizens to have a right to equally and effectively in
making decisions in the political community to which they belong. In fact, not every democratic
country responds to citizens’ aspirations and there are two reasons.

In the document, three representative cases are presented in three different democratic countries.
Indian, environmental activist Asish Sagar has been fighting against illegal sand-exploiting
activities of the democratic party. Or NGO Greenpeace has been accused 8 times for a reason:
“hindering economic growth”, and, at the same time, preventing them from receiving funds. In
another case, in Poland in Europe, the government system seems to shift to the far-right, which
means more conservative than it used to be. These are interpreted by maintaining “traditional
family values”, illegalizing abortion, and offending the LGBT community. And again, NGOs
continue to lose their funding due to the fight for women’s rights. More dramatically, Russia
which country converges all factors of democracy: Parliament, Constitutional Court, and Judicial
System is now more dictatorial. The Russian government has been rebelling against NGOs
government, activists, and journalists who are against them.

Three examples are evidence that democracy is not actually functioned well in reality. Some
countries, like Russia, impose the word “Democracy” to enforce their citizens. The truth is
concealed by “the rise of fake civil society” and the government creates a single polarity inside
the politics. Power is belonging to one man who might not adapt to citizens’ wishes. Moreover,
basic human rights have been denied by some far-right wings countries. Sexual identity of LGBT
and women’s abortion are basic needs in civilized society; however, they are not protected, and
in some severe cases, they are abused. The idea of being equal and effective to all citizens has
now become to the majority of people and minority is left out of society. In reflection, applying
democracy, in reality, has been difficult and this is the reason why democracy could not be
successful in some countries. The first reason is the “cultural personality”. In some cultures
where quality is less recognized by peoples, the right of women, children, or even ethnic people
are scarce like the culture in East Asia power is usually in the hand of men than women, and the
men make decisions for the whole family. The second reason is religion. In the U.S. or Canada,
immigrants from different countries come with a diversity of religions - Buddhism, Muslim,
Christian… . It is easy for them to follow democracy. However, in some countries where a
majority of citizens follow one religion, Muslim for example, governments adapt to the needs of
the majority more.

Briefly, democracy is tough to achieve in many countries in real life than in theory and this is the
reason why more than one political idea has been contributed around the world.